Partnerships a top priority with schools

Parents and teachers, doubtless, want children to grow and prosper.

Traditionally the contexts of the family and the school have been disparate, separated by the sounding of the first and final school bells. A long history of doubt among parents and teachers as to how much their paths should cross has clouded the parent-teacher relationship.

Increasing parent involvement, however, is a jewel in the eyes of today’s educational reformers, who recognize it as an affordable and reliable method of boosting student achievement. Parents, in their eyes, are no longer thought of as intruders or meddlers in the affairs of educators.

The Idaho Department of Education, for example, will receive more than $3 million from the federal government during the next five years as part of a school reform grant that is intended to improve the academic achievement of students. A large portion of that funding will be directed at improving communication with parents and enhancing the capacity of parents to influence reforms, according to Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction Marilyn Howard.

And according to the U.S. Department of Education, "current research clearly shows that children’s academic performance is higher at schools that have high parental involvement."

Federal legislation, as well, has supported that view. The Goals 2000: Educate America Act states that "by the year 2000, every school will promote partnerships that will increase parental involvement and participation in promoting the social, emotional and academic growth of children."

The legislation states that "every school will actively engage parents and families in a partnership which supports the academic work of children at home and shared educational decision making at school; and parents and families will help to ensure that schools are adequately supported and will hold schools and teachers to high standards of accountability."

Schools in the Blaine County School District are ahead of the game with their revolving-door policy encouraging parents to interact with educators, administrators and students in the schools.

In the elementary schools here, parents are fixtures. Hardly a classroom is without a parent aide and, at Hemingway, hardly a parking space is available thanks to parent participation.

At the middle school level, parent involvement typically drops off, in part because students resist the interaction. But at Wood River Middle School, the days when this involvement meant a monthly conference and a dance or two are certainly bygone.

"We became used to interacting with our children at the elementary school where there is a tremendous amount of parent involvement," said Sue Woodyard, whose daughter is now in eighth grade. "So we started asking ourselves why we should be cut off. That’s when a lot of parents said, ‘Let’s keep going.’"

"We’ve moved well beyond the bake sale," said Chrissy Field, who has been a force behind the Wood River Middle School parent organization. "But we don’t come with personal agendas. We’re more of a support system."

The organization still does its share of cookie baking, but in the last four years, it has made forays into all aspects of children’s education.

"I think all over the nation it is changing," said Ritu Shivdasani, who doubles as a middle and high school parent. "Teachers and administrators are asking for help, because they cannot do it alone."

Shivdasani is making an effort to build up the parent organization at the high school, where participation is not as strong as it is at the middle school.

Parents like Field, Woodyard, Shivdasani and close to a hundred others are bringing their myriad talents to the school, rubbing shoulders with teachers and administrators to help educate children.

They are assisting with math, language arts and computers; they are facilitating writers’ workshops and reading groups; they are administering tests; they are fundraising; they are meeting monthly with district leaders and participating in administrative processes; they are coaching sports; and through a slew of other activities like dances and dinners, parents at the middle school are striving to make school fun for children.

"The more you get kids excited about the spirit of a school, the more they’ll want to attend that school," said Woodyard.

Surprisingly, teachers, administrators and students at the middle school not only don’t mind this involvement, they welcome it.

"It’s gravy," said Wood River Middle School principal Chuck Turner. "You have your basic meat and potatoes here with the teachers and the classified staff and aides. The extra help from the parents is gravy, and it has made some real differences.

"At first it was a little stressful, but now we’re all really comfortable with each other, and the kids are comfortable having them come around."

Speaking to more than 50 parents at the Wood River Middle School parents organization meeting last Thursday, assistant superintendent Jim Lewis delivered his vision for the future. That the superintendent-elect chose to share his vision with the parent organization is telling. This is a district that takes the partnership with parents seriously.